Artist

Flags: Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns

Three Flags, 1958

John’s ‘Flag’ isn’t just the standard stars and stripes but a lot more. During the past 40 years, Jasper Johns has painted around 90 versions of the American flag, each different in their own right but still the same. It has been questioned why John’s paints something that is so mundane but he said he wanted to paint something “the mind already knows” rather than creating something. Doing this he delves into history, taking ‘a leap backwards in time’.